"This book is the outcome of some years of reflection about the changes in the organisation of industrial activities experienced by developed countries in the final decades of the past century. Its main focus is on the economic relationship between the crisis of the 'Golden Age' regime and the reversal of the trend towards increasing business concentration it contributed to foster over the first phase of postwar industrial development. From this point of view, it may be considered as an attempt to set the now commonly emphasized revival of 'small scale production' within the wider framework of 'institutional' change. In particular, the book provides a theoretical analysis of firm behaviour appropriate to explain why, in the face of the above mentioned macroeconomic changes, firms did actually choose to opt for increasing market exchanges as opposed to vertically integrated manufacturing activities."--Jacket.